Targeted lessons
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Year 12
Side B4a: Electricity
Introduce current, charge, potential difference, power, resistance, and resistivity in the first Year 12 electricity block.
Part of Year 12 CIE Physics 9702.
Topic Overview
What students will cover
This topic establishes the main quantities used throughout AS electricity. Keep the physical meaning of each variable visible: current is about charge flow, potential difference is about energy per charge, and resistance describes how a component responds to that flow.
The lessons then connect those ideas to power, I-V characteristics, and resistivity. Treat the equations as descriptions of circuit behaviour, and keep checking them against graphs, units, and real component measurements.
Revision
Topic revision route
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Recall vocabulary
current
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charge
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Potential difference
energy transferred per unit charge across a component.
energy transfer
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Power
work done per unit time.
Resistance
potential difference divided by current.
Ohm's law
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resistivity
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I-V characteristic
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electric current
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charge carriers
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quantisation
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coulomb
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ampere
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number density
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drift speed
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Q = It
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work done
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Resource bank
- Lesson resources
- 3
- Topic resources
- 0
Open the relevant lesson first, then use its linked slides, worksheets, simulations, or practice tasks.
Syllabus CIE 9702 coverage in this topic
15 points across 3 lessons
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CIE 9702 coverage in this topic
15 points across 3 lessons
9.1.1
understand that an electric current is a flow of charge carriers
9.1.2
understand that the charge on charge carriers is quantised
9.1.3
recall and use Q = It
9.1.4
use, for a current-carrying conductor, the expression I = Anvq, where n is the number density of charge carriers
9.2.1
define the potential difference across a component as the energy transferred per unit charge
9.2.2
recall and use V = W / Q
9.2.3
recall and use P = VI, P = I 2R and P = V 2 / R
9.3.1
define resistance
9.3.2
recall and use V = IR
9.3.3
sketch the I–V characteristics of a metallic conductor at constant temperature, a semiconductor diode and a filament lamp
9.3.4
explain that the resistance of a filament lamp increases as current increases because its temperature increases
9.3.5
state Ohm’s law
9.3.6
recall and use R = ρL / A
9.3.7
understand that the resistance of a light-dependent resistor (LDR) decreases as the light intensity increases
9.3.8
understand that the resistance of a thermistor decreases as the temperature increases (it will be assumed that thermistors have a negative temperature coefficient)
Lessons
Lesson sequence
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Lesson
01Current and Charge
Introduce current and charge as linked electrical quantities.
Lesson
02Potential Difference and Power
Use electrical energy ideas to explain potential difference and power.
Lesson
03Resistance and Resistivity
Compare resistance and resistivity and use them in standard problems.